Category Archives: A Youth Alliance/Oregon Jamboree

Because today’s NY Times article “The Evolution of Trust” by David Brooks has such an enormous bearing on why Fraternities must dramatically improve the ‘trust-equation’, I am quoting it in its entirety. (after reading the article please see: Eight Steps to Restore Trust)

I’m one of those people who thought Airbnb would never work. I thought people would never rent out space in their homes to near strangers. But I was clearly wrong. Eleven million travelers have stayed in Airbnb destinations, according to data shared by the company. Roughly 550,000 homes are now being shared by hosts. Airbnb is more popular in Europe than it is even in the United States. Paris is the largest destination city. Read the rest of this entry →

For some reason, the concept of a “Flipped Fraternity” is hard to grasp. Dick Gould, Stanford’s Tennis Guru — who has been running tennis summer camps for over 45 years, tells me I should change the name to “Camp Franklin” — and run the promotion of it under the domain name I have owned for 20 years – bfranklin.edu. Why? So obvious when you think about it you feel like putting the ice cream cone directly to your forehead. Some of them include: Read the rest of this entry →

Ever since I learned that Bijou Cinema, a small movie theater here in Eugene – learn more here – raised donations in excess of $50,000 to enable the purchase of a new digital camera, I can’t help thinking about “Crowdsourcing.” ( NYTimes Article here.) What is obvious about all of this has already been posted; several times. (Sample here)

What is not so obvious is the value of bringing “Crowdsourcing” to the kids who live inside the Houses — an idea caused by a strange coincidence. Let me tell you more about it. Read the rest of this entry →

Yesterday, Jeff White, Eagle Scout and a proud (sophomore) member of the Beta Theta Pi Fraternity at Oregon, took me on an hour-long tour of the Beta House. First, picture a spectacular House with eight tall stone pillars, each one representing a Founder of the Fraternity. Now, picture a big, beautifully landscaped front lawn that overlooks the Mill Race — Oregon’s “canal” that runs east and west right through the campus of the University. Here, below, is what this beauty looks like!

Next, picture when you walk into the House being “greeted” by a living room, dining room, television room, and kitchen that is as immaculate (and beautiful) as any Sorority on the campus – and that is saying a LOT! Now picture a bright young man, polite, smart, upward bound, full of energy, ambition, good ideas and a work-ethic that any employer could only wish for. That’s Jeff White. Now, for the rest of this very pleasant morning…. read on.. – Read the rest of this entry →

About the subject of a selected Fraternity House at Oregon in the 2015 summer with kids ages 12-18, Clarke Mcallister, long time Chapter Adviser, has asked me this question: “John, what exactly do you want from Sigma Chi?”

NOTE: This article was written in August 2005. It is re-posted here because it is has relevance to the whole idea of putting youngsters inside Fraternity Houses – or in Fraternity sponsored uniforms – in the summer. There are 5,500 such Houses each one of which can easily sleep and feed 50-60 kids. Almost all are empty and idle in the summer. For me this is morally repugnant, financially stupid and exceptionally short-sighted. I am proud to say I was the prime sponsor to the 2005 Sigma Chi Challengers, ages 15-17 (American Legion). To my knowledge this was a first in the entire Greek World. Read the rest of this entry →

Today, in the world of academics and education the biggest buzz revolves around the word “flipped”. As in — “Flipped Classroom”….where the homework for the kids is to watch carefully prepared on-line videos lasting about 5-15 minutes. The following day, the videos would be discussed in intensive, highly interactive, ‘hands on’ classes where teacher and students are engaged in small groups. Read the rest of this entry →

Filmed thirty-five years ago nothing has rocked collegiate Greeks as hard as the movie Animal House. It’s a Monster that haunts all 5,500 Chapter Houses operating on more than 800 college campuses in America.